Happy birthday gravesme!

The end credits for 'Shin Chan,' which is a far more amusing show than it should be.

This song is dang catchy, though.

This weekend has been enjoyable, even though I've been sick. My stupid cold moved to my lungs and threatened to obliterate me. :X But fortunately I recovered and am now ready to rule the world! Ah ha ha ha ha ha!......once this stupid headache goes away.

My friend Jimmy came up to visit us. It was a blast having him around again. We went to college together and I miss hitting all the comic shops with him and playing DnD with him. But he came up on Thursday and we hit the Neon Cactus, and then we got ice cream yesterday. Today we saw Harold and Kumar: Escape from Guantanamo Bay. It was.....alrighty. I mean, it wasn't terrible but I didn't laugh that much during it.

I have a big announcement that I'll give you all tomorrow when my head's clearer. Talk to you later.

Friday night was the last night of the Larp up here before the big reset. With a lot of events all coming together at once and most of the players become fed up with the current storyline we all came to a vote to end our current chronicle and start a new one. My character, Dietrich von Stadt, was killed but only after going out in a blaze of glory that was kind of fitting for him. ( Read more... )
Best quotes from the night:
"Alright, alright, I know I say this all the time but I should say it again: Doesn't this seem like something we should leave to the good guys? You know? This seems like this is more there bag."

Another player was using Egyptian magics to dispel a demon.
"In the name of Horus, I banish you!"
I cocked my eyebrow at him. "In the name of a real god, God, I banish you!"

"Go Tremere! Use your Devilish magics to save us from that Satanist! 'Jesus Save me.'"

Now to sleep. Night folks.

Wow.

House full of people, four different kinds of ribs, salads (veggie, potato, and fruit), garlic breads, cheese straws, veggies and dips, soda/tea/booze, sun, grass, sprinkler, and damn good company...holy shit, good times. Met fun people, made new friends, showed off admirably, grill-wise, surrounded by gaming geeks. Oh yes, this was a day of days.

Frank's a (mostly) happy guy.

As for the cryptic post previously...look, I'm going through a weird time right now. I'm not happy with some stuff on a personal level, and by that I mean parts of me that I'm not happy with. I'm trying to figure out what to do about them, and while I'm seeing the issues, I'm not seeing solutions that I can live with or that will actually work. Something I am seeing, though...because someone finally pointed it out to me...is the effect it's having on others and how it's coming across, and I'm not happy about that, either. Anyway, more detail later to those few that I trust to hear what I have to say without judgment, and that I trust to tell me what I need to hear, not what I want to hear.

If you know me and you deal with me at all, I'm just asking you to hang in there and gimme a chance. I'm trying to get my shit together on this.

Today was spent mailing a query letter, finishing reading jmeadows's latest book, and watching movies (Words to come tomorrow, I promise. Should be nice and rainy, which is always good writin' weather).

A good portion of the day was also spent pondering The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. Mainly, I was trying to make sure I didn't think the movie was a disappointment... and sadly, it's becoming clear that I do. It wasn't a bad film, really, but I think it was just 'meh.' It was there. I found myself questioning too many things to really get lost in the film.

Mostly, I believe, what kept me from enjoying the film was that they took the subtle religious underpinnings of the first film and absolutely beat the bloody living hell out of the audience with them this time. I mean, I realize these are basically religious stories being produced for mass audiences, but they should really have given even us heathens some credit in regard to being able to put two plus two together. I had issues with the children having such faith in Aslan in the first film -- that was my inner skeptic needing them to need more reasons to praise/follow/worship him than just him appearing when needed -- but that didn't stop me from liking it. In this one, I couldn't stop wondering if, by having such faithful adoration for the lion, these children weren't in fact substituting him for the 'real' god we can assume they worshipped on Earth. In other words, by trying to write a story about true faith, were C.S. Lewis' characters guilty of false idolatry?

( Okay, here be spoilers. )

Wow. I didn't realize I had that many issues with the film. Similar things to some of those probably occurred in the first one, but they didn't bother me then. That's what leads me to believe this movie wasn't as good. The effects were great, the whole thing was very pretty, and Eddie Izzard amused me, but too many narrative shortcuts were taken. Too much symbolism was highlighted with glowing neon signs. I'd have to imagine even kids would get the point.

In all, I realize this movie was about fantasy and faith, but those need to be balanced with a healthy dose of logic, and this movie had precious little of that. I'd give it an overall rating of slightly below average... I'd watch it once more, for free, just to make sure I didn't miss something important, but otherwise I don't have much of a drive to see it again.

Edit: I should and will give the movie makers credit for including an inordinate amount of throat-slashing by rats, something we just don't see enough of in movies these days. Granted, even with those there were issues (ie. immediate death rather than a slow bleed-out; no blood is actually seen), but at least they tried.

omgitssoawesome. slightly spoilerish: I didn't really think that it'd be so short that I'd play through an entire RPG in a day, but when I got to Day 7 and defeated the boss, I really did think it was end game. I also thought so because you get rewarded when you're *not* playing, an incentive to not get through the whole thing quickly. But when it put me back at Day 1, omg. My initial reaction was of course wtf, but also glad that there was more story to go through. Even more so after it explained why I had to go through it again.

My eyes need a break, but I'm anxious for the rest to unfold. The character building is well done (I like when I can relate), and game play uses the DS features really well. I might even end up liking this more than Kingdom Hearts! :O

(Found via AndrewSullivan.com)

We had a heat wave a couple months back, lasted maybe two days, with "nice" weather preceding and some good, restful rainclouds after.

I've been looking at automated weather stations on the Weather Underground ... because a friend of mine has one ... and the Weather Underground is really pretty amazing.

We have something more like a heat-pulse right now. There is a weather station on the web a short distance from where I live, and according to that, on Thursday it hit 90 degrees very briefly around 4pm; Friday it was 99 degrees at 5pm and it was above 80 degrees from 10am to 10pm.

Today, it hit 80 around 10:15am and 90 at 12:30, and has been no higher than 94.
This is still Stinking Hot by my perception. The forecast is for 80 tomorrow, and for partial clouds to return by Monday.

For my friends and family suffering in Seattle, partially cloudy, I can only say, at least you have partially ;) and that Tuesday promises to be at least overcast.

For my friends and family suffering in Salem and Dallas, Oregon - five to eight degrees hotter than here - same forecast.


Now for friends and family in Redding, California... where it claims to be 101 degrees (and probably under-reports) ... and the Redding Area Weather Service automated station reports 108 ... WHY DO YOU LIVE IN THE STINKING DESERT????

Ahem. Yeah. And they live (get this) ABOVE GROUND rather than at least burrowing underneath, like sensible people would.

Making arrangements to meet someone at a cafe to drop off books and stuff. "Oh no!" I thought, after confirming the time, "how will we recognize each other?"

*pause*

*look at boots*

*look at giant kingfisher tattoo*

Yeah, probably not much of a concern. Remind me not to ever commit any crimes that will involve me getting dragged into a police line-up... 

Hmm.

Dammit.



Well, I have things going on right now, gonna have to think about this more later. Glad I heard it, though. Wish I'd heard it sooner.

Paid off my Sears card this week and my Mastercard is down to about $200 so I think I am ready to replace the PC my brother blew with the wrong RAM. I am just hoping my service provider has updated their dialup to be compliant with VISTA (yeah, I wish it was XP too). If not compliant I will have to switch over to Netzero instead. Anyway, it is an ASUS and I will just post the link to the specs. It says NVidia 9500, but the laptop at work said 9800. Either way it will shit out what my old PC could do.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8781339&st=ASUS&lp=5&type=product&cp=1&id=1204332769810

-crosses fingers that dialup will work ok and that it doesn't blow up on plugging it in.

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm?PLAY=1218&GAME=3&VIEW=videos&bhcp=1


Samurai-ko? Did they hire you? Cause I swear, in so many ways this looks like something you could've done. In style, theme and build up music, it mirrors many aspects of your I-12 teaser, just with the addition of elements that weren't available to you at the time.

So, with tomorrow's culinary throw-down looming large, I'm getting things started. Gotta cook up my sauce, just got done prepping the ribs. Also, as an extra, I'm making Cheese Straws, which I haven't had in, cripes, must be over 20 years, but which I remember my ancient aunts making and me loving. Having never made them before, this is a bit of an experiment, but not much of one, because they're completely flippin' easy.

( Recipe, For The Curious: )

Gotta make some potato salad still, and Dianna is doing some fruit/veggie sides. Should be a hell of a Rib-Off, as it turns out that at least two of the four Grill Sergeants are doing a sweeter taste (I'm doing my Peach BBQ Ribs, daemonwise has a more cocoa/cajun thing going on that tastes wunne'ful), and Mike P. is doing a molasses/bourbon thing, so we should have a nice choice of meats. Gonna be good times.

Now, must go check my Cheese Straws, first batch should be almost done, and gotta start the sauce...and still waiting to see if chaosreality shows up for the game tonight...must remember to pack my folding chairs and the fans, and the cooler...things to do, things to do...

After a short couple of days of feeling better, I've slumped back down into a depressive state. I don't even know where to begin. How about that, the more I think about it, the more I realize that not only does nothing make me happy or content in my life, but that I don't even know what does make me happy anymore. For example, this silly game my friends played last Friday, where we write down five things we couldn't live without and I was struggling, struggling to even think of one. I feel like a waste to society. A soon to be 30-year old loser (as of this Tuesday), no idea what I even want in life, having a hard time trying to just find a stupid job for the summer and can't even pick out my courses in September.

You would think it would be easy to pick out courses. I bet if any of my friends who are English Majors even took a passing glance at the course listings (especially those that went to STU), they'd go nuts. But again, I look over the list and see either courses I have no interest in or ones I don't feel I have the scholarly capacity to even handle them. I'd look at half of them and figure "Cripes, I would just fail that."

I don't even know if I want to go back to school. How the hell am I going to become a teacher if I have absolutely no experience working with kids? About 90% of the reason I'm even considering it as a career is because people say I wold be "so good" at it. How the hell do they know? What's to stop me from having another huge bout of depression and wind up mentally scarring the kids? The problem is that I have absolutely no idea what I even want out of life anymore. I don't know what would make me happy and I don't even know where to even start looking for any semblance of happiness. I constantly doubt myself and everything about me, assuming that nobody wants anything to do with me because I'm just some useless, depressive loser. I haven't done anything with my life because I'm so filled with doubt, self-loathing and no confidence that I sometimes can't even make the simplest decisions. I don't do many things or attempt many things because I just automatically assume I'm going to fail.

What's the point of writing any of this? It's not going to change things. I'll get the inevitable comments from people who read this, telling me I'm not a loser, even though I've never believed that in my heart. Or I'll get the more stronger words from people like Mitchell or my parents who try to give me the tough love instead of telling me what I want to hear (when it's never my intention to "fish" for whatever compliments). It all doesn't matter because it all boils down to the fact that I'm a miserable failure at life, who wastes and has wasted so much time and just feeling like I have nothing in life. Goddamn, I'm tearing up now

The worst part is that for all the waste of life that I feel I am, I can't even kill myself. I'm so absolutely terrified of death and every year that I spend doing nothing with my life just brings me closer to death by "natural causes" when I've accomplished nothing in life. All I've led is a lonely, self-absorbed life where I've put the most work into useless things like comic books, wrestling and video games. I look back at my past relationships and want to beat the living crap out of myself for losing some great women to my stupid hobbies.

Why can't it just end? Why can't I just finish myself off so people can just not have to look down at me? So I'm not a waste of time and money on my parents? So I don't feel like a sad sack that feels like his friends spend time with him out of pity, not any other reason? I don't care if that's not how they see it, that's how it feels. I just feel like the sad, pathetic, useless piece of crap without a life who has wasted his life and no longer can see the tunnel, let alone the light at the end of it. I don't feel like I have any hopes or dreams or passions.

Screw it. I'm going to bed. Maybe I'll stop crying by morning.

Stolen from a whole bunch of people...

My gene combination was never meant to be together --;. I went to the dermatologist yesterday, and he offered me 2 options: a pill or a steroid shampoo. There were 3 pill options, none of which sounded very great side effect wise, so I asked for the shampoo. One of the shampoo's side effects is that it may cause GLAUCOMA, something my genes are already inclined to having. Now I'm having second thoughts on the shampoo, but I guess it won't matter if my health insurance won't cover the cost of the shampoo (which, without insurance, would be $300.00/bottle) ;b. I called the nurse today about it, and she said she would try to get back to me later today or Monday I guess.

At this point, I think I'm finally going to give up and let my flaky scalp do its thing and flake blizzards of dandruff and have scabby bumps all over. I'm also considering going back to Lush's Soak-and-Float, which caused my neck to develop a sunburn dry irritating rash, but with less frequent usage (i.e. 2-3 times a week instead of daily or less). The glaucoma part scares me a bit, and the pills' liver damaging side effect do as well. I already have skin problems and depression, and I'm likely doomed to get heart problems (maybe an attack or 2), diabetes, glaucoma, whatever else my families have that I don't know about, etc.. I don't need to add to that pile. I hate my genes. My genes should never reproduce --;. My genes and I are going to die together, MWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA >8D!

Lisa/taeha, I got your package of goodies 8D! THANK YOU for the signed CD and probably very painful wait for that one comic signature! I also LOVE the calendar! You should make trading cards of your own! I've got to post what you got me later when I get the chance. THANK YOU ♥!

P.S. EDIT: Crap! Since when did Pay FIEND/Pall become THE only TRUSTED way for sellers to do transactions now >8(?! I'm getting more and more replies saying, "No, I can't accept a postal money order. I would rather go through Pay Pal ONLY." I hope all their computers and credit cards go PBBBBBT through Pay FIEND/Pall >8P!

I wasn't gonna do this meme what I grabbed from gothfather ... but then I sorta filled in the stuff and got this and it's absolutely PERFECT so ...

( HERO!!! )

Swiped from the heroic alessar.

...why am I the only woman in this list?

I woke a lot so I dreamt a lot.

First I was a blonde girl in a boarding school in Europe. The headmistress was a royal twat so the neighbor's son and I ran away together and hid in a small town in the mountains.

Then I was in a video game again, this was like Kings Quest in a factory building. Weird.

Then I was being chased by softball-sized blue discs. The banks created them to chase down folks in debt. If they touched your skin, they burned and somehow the banks got yer money. Weird!

Then I was a Hispanic woman helping my sister and her ganged-up husband fight a rival gang to get back their son.




wtf?

I've been holding this back, for fear of insulting people on my friends list. Please know that this is NOT directed at ANY of you. You're all intelligent and capable of forming sound decisions. You therefore do not fall into the category below.

However. It says something* about Hillary Clinton that her strongest base of supporters are "uneducated" white people. If you haven't seen this clip from The Daily Show, you need to go watch it. Interviews with West Virginia voters about why they support Hillary over Barack:

"I guess because he is another race. It.. I'm sortof scared of the other race cuz we have so much conflict with 'um."

"He's a muslim, you know, and that has a lot to do with it."

"I don't like the Hussein thing. I've had enough of Hussein."

As funny as the clip is, it perfectly illustrates the point. And I don't want whomever these people would vote for, to run the country. Seriously. These people aren't just uneducated, they're ignorant. They're stupid. If anyone would not vote for someone because of their race, or their middle name, or their RELIGION**.. No really, I don't want their candidate running this country.

* That "something" being that they're not voting FOR Hillary because she's a better candidate, they're voting AGAINST Barack because they're racist ignoramuses.

** I understand the idea of common morality. You want someone that you know shares your views on some important subjects. But of course, most of the major religions have quite a few of the same morals, so rejecting someone based on religion because of "moral differences" is a lie. Rejecting someone based on religion is just another kind of racism. "You're not like me so I don't like you." Just more ignorance. (Not to mention the fact that, oh, HE IS CHRISTIAN. Do we need to put a billboard on the moon?)

So, in case anyone cares or anything, my birthday is next saturday.

Don't currently have any plans or anything. I'd just like to not spend the day alone.

My chest is killing me today. i thought I just had bad allergies the past couple of days, but I think it's pretty much confirmed as a head cold. Argh. I did not sleep at all last night.

I need to head out and run some errands today though. Spent another half hour driving around Concord and couldn't find the darned place. Why is this place so hard to find? At least I found another Walmart in town. I didn't know we had three of them.

My cat is scared of my coughing fits. :/ Nothing quite like having her freak out on my chest when I cough and scratch at me.

And finally a Meme for you.

A virtual Raptor Cookie to anyone who can figure out what this means/what it's for:

Cold fish get irritated just like people. Probably they're very vicious.

Only a certain group of people on my friends list would have any reason to understand it. Bonus cookies if you also figure out this statement, which is related to the first one, but comes from about 15 years ago, and is not limited to a specific group on my friends list:

All cats make pies horribly horribly sweet.)

You Say It's Your Birthday
Well, it's my birthday too!



Also, thanks to dawna for the v-gift AND paid time (which LJ didn't email me about so I hadn't realized), everyone for the wishes, and Ruthie for the YouTube Birthday Wishes Vlog!

And a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to scaryshari and kitten516 who are ALSO celebrating birthdays today. Yay!



We're going out to eat tonight and heading to Disney tomorrow, so I'll probably be away until Sunday. But yay! Birthday weekend!

LJ stereotypes my journals have gone through, in order: fae girl, emo kid, artist, gamer, fangirl (just barely). Now I guess it's some assorted mix of these.

My readership and reading list has changed through each of these as well. I wonder how much of it is because of people disappearing vs. just me changing over the years.

Does LJ have an SG/VG on test and test01?

I skimmed through the tags, and didn't see anything, but I don't have the time to fully go through the archives right now.

If we don't, I'd be happy to start one up.

I know the PvP crowd does fights on test so they can play cross server, and I thought it might be fun if we did occassional events as well.

Plus, we could use the copy tool to make horribly L33T alts by swapping the uber rare recipes/enh's... or is that just the villain in me talking? ;)

So in light of certain anagrammatical insights, I wondered what, if anything, might be revealed in a similar way about the other known Menders of Ouroboros. Well, it turns out there really aren't many anagrams of "Mender Lazarus" ("snare drum zeal" being the best I could find, but the Z limits things quite a bit) or "Mender Roebuck" ("cerebrum end OK"; this guy really needs some better consonants). But "Mender Tesseract" is the jackpot:
- Rend secret steam
- Tender scream set
- Esteem car trends
- Meet actress Dern
- Trace dessert men
- Erects damn trees
- Red cents taser me
- Send me streetcar
- Sneers at cred met
- Tern created mess
- Scared, meet Stern
- See Mr. Rat-Scented <-- my favorite
- Set dream centers
- Mere ends scatter
- Carts deter-- uh, that's plenty already.